An Adventure Too Late
by Rabid Pink Bunny
Summary: Kite gathers up his friends to go on an ordinary event, right? Wrong. This quest is anything BUT ordinary, where Mistral likes to sing annoying tunes, Gardenia owns a gun, Natsume loves a tree, and the TRUE essence of Aromatic Grass is still a mystery...


An Adventure Too Late  
  
A/N: Okay, one night I was just looking out the window, staring at the beach, spying on unsuspecting teenagers doing whatever they were doing at one AM in the morning. Ooh, lookie, cruise ship in the distance. Pretty waves splashing on the sand. Wow, a single, lonely star in the sky. Then suddenly, BOOM! Fanfic idea!  
  
How staring at the beach influenced me to write this, I have absolutely no idea.  
  
This takes place at no particular time during .hack//Infection. I defy the laws of 'only three people per party', so hah hah. Arrest me now. Some of the events in this are loosely based on a true story. Weird things always happen to me in games. ---------------------------  
  
Kite, the unofficial, self-proclaimed leader or whoever decided to join his party, stood in a deserted, back alley in the Root Town, Mac Anu. BlackRose, with a rather wastefully cheerful Mistral tagging behind, soon met up with this certain Kite. Of course, because of the sudden defying of the law that only allows one captain and two toilet cleaners in each ship, other friends of our beloved Kite came along, too. The confident Blademaster Mia, with the shy Wavemaster Elk by her side, soon arrived. Soon, Natsume, a Twin Blade that has absolutely nothing to do with the game's story, and the ever-so-popular Long Arm 'Miss' Gardenia showed up. These were the only people that could show up at Kite's request, because for one reason or another, the others couldn't make it. It didn't take long for Kite to realize though that he knew far too many girls than he did guys. That's not necessarily bad though, is it?  
  
"All right guys, I called you here for an important reason!" Kite announced, though everyone else pretty much figured that a while back.  
  
"I'm grateful that you called me!" Nastume chimed. "You're such a reliable and nice person. I would do anything to assist you, Kite!"  
  
Everyone looked blankly at Nastume.  
  
"Anyway," Kite continued. "I read a message on the BBS, saying something about this really hard dungeon with this super nifty item. Of course, that's basically all we ever do in this game. Go to field, go to dungeon, look for statue with ridiculously lame items that are suppose ably cool, sell 'em off, and repeat process. But, my fellow comrades, I hear this is supposed to be different!" So far, only Mistral, Elk, and Natsume seemed to be even half-interested. "From what the message said, everyone who accompanies the group to this statue will not only get the ultimate weapon in their class, but will get some major leveling up and get a bunch of cool stuff!"  
  
Everybody exchanged glances, murmuring opinions and views.  
  
"Are you sure such a thing exists?" Gardenia asked. "I've never heard of such a thing."  
  
"Me neither." Mia added. "Unless this is an event that suddenly came up."  
  
"But it sounds so COOL!" Mistral squealed. "I want to go see! I want to I want to!"  
  
Kite grinned, feeling as if he accomplished something other than Data Draining some looser Data Bug's nifty glowing-abilities, in which their HP is actually shown and you can see their actual NAME. "I even have the keywords to this field! So, who's with me?"  
  
BlackRose smiled. "Sure, why not. I think we should all check it out. Not like there's anything else to do, right?"  
  
"Um, are you sure you don't mind me coming?" Elk shyly shuffled his feet. "I don't want to be in the way, and, well..."  
  
"Of course not, Elk." Mia shot a smile at him.  
  
"Um, okay.." He replied.  
  
"I feel honored!" Nastume cheered. "You truly are a great person, Kite! Only a half-hearted, selfish person would not invite his friends to accompany him on such a quest!"  
  
Again, everyone looked blankly at her. Kite didn't know if he should slap his fellow Twin Blade across the face out of embarrassment, or if he should feel grateful that at least SOMEBODY treats him with such 'respect'.  
  
"To the Chaos Gate!" Kite shouted. He began to run ahead, wanting to start a whole stampede of happy followers, but realized that everyone was walking quite a distance behind him when he didn't hear the clatter of everyone else's feet. He sighed, fixed his hat out of embarrassment, and walked back to the group as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Oh I can't wait!" Mistral cheered. "Not only can I get rid of this sixties- sounding 'Groovy Stick' of a weapon, but I'll be stronger, too! Then I can rub it all in my brother's face that I am all mighty and cool and he's not!" Mistral began to laugh aloud like a moron, ignoring the fake coughs and the fact that BlackRose was walking just a little faster than the group.  
  
"I'm only doing this to get away from my stupid 'fan club'." Gardenia grunted.  
  
The group was then faced with the CHAOS GATE. Now comes the fun part: Entering extremely ridiculous and sometimes hard to remember keywords that have absolutely no purpose but to give a stupid name to a stupid field!  
  
Kite stood tall and proud in front of the mighty blue swirly thing that enabled you to go from one place to another. He stared at it for a moment, but suddenly, something went wrong. Oh no. It was a tragic, horrible, terrifying, skip-a-heartbeat experience.  
  
"Is something wrong, Kite?" Elk asked, being the only one who noticed his disturbed look.  
  
"I, uh." Kite paused. Soon everyone shut up, wondering about the sudden problem. Kite grinned nervously. "I kinda forgot the keywords."  
  
A big mob of groans were heard, except from Natsume and Elk.  
  
"You idiot!" BlackRose griped. "How are we supposed to get there now?!"  
  
"I could always log out and get it real quick." Kite said. "I-I'll be right back!"  
  
Kite logged off in a hurry.  
  
"Moron." Gardenia mumbled under her breath.  
  
A minute after, Kite reappeared.  
  
"Okay, I got it for sure this time!" Kite stood with dignity once more in front of the Chaos Gate. "Detestable Closed.. or wait... was it Detestable Obli... No, no, I know it was Detestable somewhere in there.."  
  
Mia's hand was placed on her forehead. "You forgot the keywords again, didn't you?"  
  
"Don't worry!" Kite called out. "I'll get it!"  
  
Kite disappeared in a series of gold, sparkly circles.  
  
Gardenia flipped her hair. "A moron, I tell you. But what does he get? Amazing fighting skills and a bracelet that could put me in a condition I'd rather not experience in the real world. I hate this."  
  
Nobody paid much attention to Gardenia's pitiful wailing. Kite suddenly appeared, again!  
  
"Okay, this time, I wrote it down! I can't mess up this time!" Kite turned, faced the Chaos Gate for the third time, and stoo-  
  
"Quit standing there like you're worth a dollar-seventy-five and just get us to the god-forsaken place!" Gardenia growled. Kite, afraid that this woman might actually have a secret mob just waiting to attack whoever made her mad, quickly obeyed.  
  
So off was the group! Appeared the group did next in a field, filled with grass so green it wasn't green anymore, a sky so beautiful it was disturbing, flowers ranging in colors that didn't even exist, even bunnies and butterflies to top it off!  
  
BlackRose cocked an eyebrow. "Kite, are you absolutely sure this is it? It doesn't exactly look like a battleground to me."  
  
Elk suddenly looked happy. "Mia! Mia! This looks like a place that might have Aromatic Grass!"  
  
"Yes, indeed." Mia remarked. "It looks trippy enough to be a place with Aromatic Grass."  
  
"No, we cannot stop now!" Nastume declared. "We must continue our quest with our friend, Kite! This is no time to be smoking drugs!"  
  
For once, the group could agree with the ever so polite and annoyingly grateful Twin Blade.  
  
'WHY did I ever help her in that dungeon?' Kite asked himself. 'Was there a reason I did all that just for a stupid WEAPON? Darn the fact that I have to be the nice, main character person who ALWAYS does something to help every damsel in distress!'  
  
"If we're done now, I'd like to get to the stupid dungeon and get this pointless mission over with!" Gardenia hissed.  
  
"But where's the dungeon?" Mistral asked the group.  
  
"She's right." Mia said. "My map doesn't locate a dungeon at all in this area. Are you sure this is the area we need to be in?"  
  
"I'm positive!" Kite answered. "I don't know why there wouldn't be a dungeon."  
  
"Maybe we're all DEAD and this is what HEAVEN looks like!" Mistral cried. "No! I didn't mean what I said! Heaven is scary!"  
  
Elk reached in his where-ever-characters-keep-their-items and took the last of the Aromatic Grass he had left. "B-But it's not drugs... Is it, Mia?"  
  
Mia's tail twitched. "Um, no. Of course not, Elk. Don't listen to her, she doesn't know the TRUE ESSENCE of Aromatic Grass!"  
  
Elk did a short out of character happy-dance and put away the mysterious item, for to this day, nobody knows the true purpose of Aromatic Grass.  
  
"Uh, well, I guess we could ask those bunnies over there if they could direct us." BlackRose suggested.  
  
Everyone looked in the direction of several bunnies hopping around in joy. Since they didn't have much of a choice, they agreed.  
  
BackRose pushed Kite in front. "You go ask them."  
  
"What? Why me?" Kite whined.  
  
"Well, you ARE the unofficial, self-proclaimed leader of whoever decides to join your party!" BlackRose reminded.  
  
"Wait a minute!" Kite called. "If I AM the unofficial, self-proclaimed leader of whoever decides to join MY party, then I get the rights to say who asks the bunnies for directions!"  
  
"NO!" everyone shouted.  
  
"As the brave leader of our group, you should not be scared of mere bunny rabbits!" Natsume declared. "I cannot help if you are afraid of bunnies, but face your fears! Be strong!"  
  
Kite sulked and began walking towards the bunnies. "Okay, fine.."  
  
The bunnies stopped hopping to look and stare at the new stranger.  
  
"Excuse me, I need, uh, help with directions." Kite said. "Do you know where the dungeon is?"  
  
The bunnies began whispering and murmuring among themselves, a butterfly flying by.  
  
"There is no dungeon!" one of them spoke up. "Instead, you have to go into the forest over there!" It pointed its paw in the direction of the forest. "It's not much, but I heard its got some super spiffy stuff in there."  
  
"Yay! Thanks!" Kite happily thanked the bunnies, and skipped off like a little girl to his group.  
  
"Well, where do we go?" Mistral asked once he arrived.  
  
Kite answered the question to the whole group, so off to the forest they went. Mia, BlackRose, and somewhat Gardenia, were still confused why a forest replaced the dungeon. Mistral skipped alongside Elk, singing something that without a doubt would win an award that was actually more annoying than "It's a Small World". Elk attempted to pull his hat down as far as possible, trying to void out the annoying wails. He wasn't too sure if it was even singing anymore. Kite looked over at BlackRose, who was hauling that huge sword of hers. How she could carry that thing everywhere without it getting in the way was beyond him. Gardenia continued her pitiful complains, while Mia didn't say a word as she continued on with the group. Natsume, on the other hand, continued her preaching of Kite's good deeds, being overly polite when talking about anything. Mia tried to figure out who was more annoying, Mistral's "singing" or Natsume's justice-talk, but decided that it wasn't worth it before her mind exploded.  
  
"Can I ask you something, BlackRose?" Kite asked.  
  
"You just did." She replied.  
  
"No, really, can I ask you something else other than this?"  
  
"You just did, again."  
  
"Seriously! Can I ask you a question?"  
  
"You just did!"  
  
"Oh for the love of Puchigusos!" Kite cried. "BlackRose, I'm going to ask you something whether you like it or not!"  
  
"All right then, shoot." BlackRose said.  
  
Kite suddenly had the urge to slice BlackRose with one of his blades, but decided against it. "You know what? Forget it."  
  
BlackRose gave a look at Kite, but shrugged it off. "Guys, I'll never get them." She muttered.  
  
"I am filled with a bundle of joy that I have friends like y-"  
  
"SHUT UP!!" Mia screamed. Apparently, Natsume found Mia's breaking point, causing her to use that nice blade of hers, swinging it at Natsume. Bold, red numbers reading "50" appeared over Natsume. She fell over, but soon got right back up. Completely stunned as if somebody cast 'The Hanged Man' on them all, everyone else looked in shock while Mia held her weapon out and panted.  
  
"Well, gee, that was smart! You took out some of her HP!" BlackRose said, though it was pretty obvious, considering the nifty '50' that appeared over her.  
  
Natsume looked at Mia apologetically. "I'm very sorry for whatever I have done. I didn't mean to get in your way."  
  
Mia death glared Natsume, lowering her sword, and her tail twitching. Mia didn't say anything to her, but the evil, ticked look on her face shut Natsume up for a while. After the commotion was done, the group started walking again, and Mistral continued singing the same song, over and over and OVER. Mia's response to Natsume's talking gave Elk an idea though.  
  
SMACK!!  
  
A bold, red '2' then appeared over Mistral's head.  
  
"Hey! What the heck was that for?" Mistral complained.  
  
Elk just simply turned a different shade of red and pulled back his staff like nothing happened. "J-just shut up! Um, yeah... Shush!"  
  
Mistral gave a confused look, along with Kite and BlackRose who just simply stared. Gardenia didn't care much at all. Elk walked innocently, pulling back behind Mia.  
  
"Okay, we've been walking for nearly a half-hour, so where the heck is this forest?!" Gardenia yelled. "I don't see any trees around here!"  
  
Kite stopped momentarily and looked in a different direction. "Hey, isn't that one of those weird pond things that have those weird raindrop looking things that went as far as naming themselves Grandpa?" Kite thought for a moment. "Must come from the sixties, because he looks like a hippie too. People from the sixties must be pretty old, so naturally he'd be a grandpa."  
  
BlackRose stepped up beside Kite. "Great! I have this item that I want to throw in, too!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, wait JUST a minute!" Kite pushed BlackRose behind. "As the unofficial, self-proclaimed leader of whoever decides to join MY party, I say that the person who gets to throw in an item of their choice iiiisss..." He looked at everyone, one by one, trying to decide who gets to throw the item. "Me!"  
  
"YOU? Why YOU?" Gardenia hissed.  
  
"Because I am the unofficial, self-proclaimed leader of whoever decides to join my party. You, in other words, are in my party. Thus, you must obey my orders!" Kite explained, grinning. BlackRose rolled her eyes, waving her hand at Kite.  
  
"You know what, I don't care." She moaned. "I can just find my own field and throw it in later."  
  
The unofficial, self-pro, well, you get the point, was surrounded by 'his' party as he encountered the mysterious pond, which still doesn't have a name.  
  
"I think I'll throw in my highest level Twin blades, and I bet they'll get stronger!" Kite thought aloud. Doing like he said, he threw in his current weapon in the pond. The all mighty Grandpa quickly withdrew from his watery pond.  
  
"Did you loose a Golden Axe?" He asked. "Or was it a Silver Axe?"  
  
"Neither!" Kite selected.  
  
"What?! Neither one?! Hmm.." It floated there for a quick moment. "Well, HAHA, SUCKER! I'm off!"  
  
It quickly withdrew into the sky, disappearing for good. Kite had the most lost look ever on his face. Nobody said anything.  
  
"Can somebody explain to me what exactly just happened here?" Kite asked.  
  
"Can't you figure it out?" Mia asked back. "That moron stole your weapon!"  
  
"Bloody hell!" Kite screamed, throwing his hat on the ground. "I swear on George Washington's grave, you stupid raindrop thingy, that I'll hunt you down and Data Drain you so badly, you won't even know that you exist anymore!"  
  
Natsume finally spoke up, "Well, I am a Twin Blade, too. I have some extra weapons. Maybe they can be of some sort of assistance?"  
  
Kite jumped in front of Natsume, this time, he was the grateful, polite one. "Thanks! Throw me your best pair!" Nastume took out a pair of Amateur Blades. ".... What? That's it? A level one pair of blades?" Natsume nodded. "I'm already in the thirties when it comes to level, and you want me to use something I used when I was a NEWBIE?!" Natsume nodded once more. "AUUGGHHH!!"  
  
Several members of the party stifled a laugh.  
  
"I do owe you one, Kite!" BlackRose chirped. "You saved me from throwing away a perfectly good item!"  
  
Kite lowered his head. "L-Lets just continue."  
  
Following orders, the group continued in their regular direction. After a long while of walking, disputes here and there, Mistral's annoying singing (Surprisingly enough, nobody bothered to try and stop her), and Gardenia's whining, trees suddenly appeared over the horizon. You know what that means? FOREST!!  
  
"Be good to our environment and hug a tree!" Mistral added in her song, giving the pixilated tree a nice, long and big hug. For some reason, Elk decided to hug the same tree, and soon Natsume was hugging a tree, for the sake of 'being good to the environment'.  
  
"You know what, Gardenia?" Kite called. "Your name reminds me of a tree. You should hug one, too."  
  
Gardenia narrowed her eyes. "I REFUSE to stoop as low as hugging a tree that's only mere data within an imaginary world!"  
  
Kite sighed. 'Yep,' He thought. 'I even helped those morons give some stupid note to that lady. Helping some damsels in distress. Stupid promise- breaking thing.' Kite thought, for the better of them all, that it was best not to argue with the disgruntled Long Arm.  
  
As they reached the entrance to the forest, soon a monkey wearing a pretty pink tutu jumped in front of them, singing a strange song and doing an odd dance, which required much movement of the hands and shaking of the bum.  
  
"Hola, morones!" It called out. Nobody could exactly understand what exactly the tutu-wearing monkey said though, as it was said in a different language. Ooohh... language barriers!  
  
"What did you say?" Kite asked.  
  
The monkey started to shake it's bum again. "HEEEEEY Macerena!" Then it turned ninety degrees to its right, and began repeating the same stupid dance. "Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena, qe tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa Buena! Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena! HEEEEEEY Macerena!" And the process was repeated about ten times before anyone spoke up.  
  
Mistral started picking up parts of the dance and humming the tune, attempting to dance what she knew. "Hey, this is actually kind of fun! C'mon guys!" Mistral messed up at most parts, but the worst part was... "Daylee a tew somethin' somethin' somethin', keh tew, uh, whatever goes here!" Singing what she didn't know.  
  
"Never mind, before!" Mia sobbed. "Mistral, just go back to singing 'It's a Small World', PLEASE!!"  
  
Mistral finished off her 'dance' with a small shake of her butt. "Aww, come on, you party poopers. It's fun!"  
  
"We have a quest to endure!" Natsume reminded. "We can dance later!"  
  
Somehow, Natsume was more of a help than anyone thought.  
  
Mistral groaned, stopped, and followed the crowd. For some odd, mysterious reason, the tutu-wearing monkey followed.  
  
"Monkey, why are you following us?" BlackRose asked it. It shrugged. "Well, can you stop?"  
  
"MACERENA!" It wailed.  
  
"Yay!" Mistral cheered.  
  
"No!" Mia, Gardenia, and BlackRose shouted.  
  
Mistral lowered her head, and continued on. She petted the monkey on the head. "Maybe another time, Mister Monkey. My friends are being meanies right now."  
  
The monkey started screaming monkey-like things extremely loud. Forget Mistral's singing, THIS was just hell.  
  
"This is insane! It's completely UNHUMANE! It goes against my RIGHTS!" Mia screeched.  
  
"Try to outrun him!" BlackRose suggested.  
  
Without any second thought, they attempted to run away from the barbaric screaming monkey, but all failed. It looked like there was no hope left. Then suddenly, a 'BANG!!!' so loud was heard, nearly everybody peed in their pants. The monkey fell down in a bloody mess, no longer moving. They all looked at the only non-startled member, Gardenia, who held out a huge gun with one hand, smoke dispersing from it.  
  
"Where the HELL did you get a GUN?" Mia asked.  
For the first time all day, Gardenia grinned. "This isn't all I have, so you better watch your back, kitty."  
  
'Angry mob?' Kite asked myself. 'Boy was I wrong. Instead, she has a gun! A GUN!!!'  
  
"Y-You killed the monkey!" Mistral cried. "Damn, I wanted to learn that dance, too."  
  
Elk was seen behind everybody, using the last of his Aromatic Grass as a person with asthma would use their inhalers. How it helped him cope with situations like this, or how he could smell it at all in a world of virtual reality (A/N: Well, I guess it could be explained in that one other story. XD; ), nobody knew. No one really wanted to ask though.  
  
"Wow, that was, uh, certainly something else." BlackRose commented. "How you got a gun in 'The World' though, I don't know, and I don't think I WANT to know..."  
  
Gardenia spinned the gun in her hand, blew off the smoke, and put it back in the place where all characters keep their items.  
  
"Well, now that we got rid of that thing from a place worse than the land of eternal fire, shall we continue?" Kite said.  
  
"Y-Yeah, I t-think we s-should..." Elk responded. "A-and I think I r-ran out of Arom-matic Grass."  
  
"Don't worry, we'll get some more." Mia assured.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"I think I have finally found the one who truly understands me!" Natsume announced. She tightly hugged a tree. "You are the one I have been looking for, Tree! Please never leave my side!"  
  
"Oh. My. God." BlackRose, and pretty much everyone else, stared extremely wide-eyed at Natsume.  
  
"Um, Natsume, sweetie," Kite started, placing his hand on her shoulder. "This is a tree. Now, if this was the real world, that would be one thing, but this is an imaginary tree. As in, it's not real. A fake tree could not understand your true feelings for it, much less a REAL tree."  
  
"But, but!" Natsume cried. "It understands me! I know it! It doesn't fight with me, it listens to me, and it lets me give it nice, long hugs!"  
  
"I wonder why." Gardenia sarcastically remarked.  
  
"Please, Kite!" Natsume pleaded. "I trust you with every ounce of my soul, and I honestly wish to accompany you and your friends on such a fantastic journey, but I can't leave my beloved Tree behind!"  
  
"Oh yes you can." Kite said. "Because then you can, um.. Later have something cool to tell that tree later on! That'll definitely turn it on, and it'll never want to leave you if you encountered such an epic adventure with such cool people!"  
  
Natsume would've looked all sparkly-eyed, that is, if she even opened them. Instead, she got up, and looked at 'Tree' for a minute. "Tree, Kite is right! I do not wish to be a person who has not accomplished a thing and lead a boring life! I will come back with an interesting story!" Natsume hugged the tree, and then began kissing it. Not just a regular kiss, but KISS kissed it, making everyone wince on the spot. After she was done making out, Kite immediately made Natsume go to the front of the group, promising her that she'd see her stupid tree again. Natsume did so, and then Kite grabbed Mistral behind while everyone else continued walking.  
  
"Mistral, I want you to pretend you have to go to the bathroom, stay behind here, and burn that tree down." Kite whispered.  
  
"Bathroom? This is virtual reality!" Mistral whispered back. "They'll know I'm lying for sure!"  
  
"No they won't!" Kite replied.  
  
Mistral frowned. "Okay, but if Natsume dedicates her life solely to hunting you down and giving you an inhumane, brutal and bloody death, I am no way responsible for anything that happened, nor was I ever involved in the burning down of this tree."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
Kite skipped back to his party.  
  
"Where's Mistral?" Elk asked.  
  
"Oh, her? Oooh, she had to go to the bathroom, so she'll be right back." Kite answered.  
  
Gardenia looked at Kite. "Bathroom?"  
  
"How is she capable of doing that HERE?" Mia asked as well.  
  
"Why are you asking me THAT?" Kite asked back. "I mean, why not ask how Elk's Aromatic Grass is even effective!"  
  
"Because so far, that poor kid needs a therapist." Gardenia said.  
  
"Hey, how come I smell smoke, all though that I am truly incapable of accomplishing such actions within this game?" BlackRose asked.  
  
"Smoke? Hah hah, don't be so silly, BlackRose!" Kite said. "Of course there wouldn't be any smoke in a forest! That would mean trees are burning down!"  
  
"No! NO! My Tree cannot be burned down by a mere flame!" Natsume chimed. "There is no such fire in a forest! I refuse to believe that my Tree would fall in such an impending doom!"  
  
Kite gave off a cheesy smile. "Yes, yes. Good girl, Natsume! Now blindly believe what she said, and lets continue!"  
  
So, they did. After Mistral finished burning down the tree, even taking the moments of stomping on it like a dancing sloth, she ran quickly to catch up to the gang.  
  
"Okay, I'm done!" Mistral announced.  
  
"Yeah, thanks." Mia responded.  
  
Nobody was quite sure where exactly they were in this strange forest, but after a while of walking, a straightforward pathway appeared. They walked along this pathway, until something totally un-cool happened: There were three different pathways to take at the fork. It was understandable if the pathway way took an unnecessary turn to the right and a door was right there, or if there were only two different routes to take, but THREE? Outrageous. That means that if they took the wrong turn twice, that they wasted a good amount of time taking a left and a north when Gardenia CLEARLY stated that the right turn was the correct way. Forgetting that the chick owned a gun and ignoring her, the group decided to go left. Wow, look! A Golden Egg! Isn't that cool? They picked up the annoying bouncing thing, and ventured on. Anything that looked like a dead body, they made it look more like a murder scene, for these dead bodies held the most useful of items. They went as far left as they could, up until they met a dead end, a Risky Treasure greeting them. Elk decided that, not exactly being the sharpest knife in the drawer, he'd open the risky blue box without using a Fortune Kire, causing the poor guy to loose nearly all of his HP in an echoing explosion.  
  
"What the heck did you do THAT for?" Mistral asked.  
  
"I-I just wanted to see if that was any more Aromatic Grass..." Elk said.  
  
Mistral rolled her eyes. "Well, seeing as your health isn't doing too good.. Repth!" Using her healing abilities, she recovered Elk. He again did his out of character happy dance, but still upset that there wasn't any Aromatic Grass. Mia proved to be the least bit helpful when it came to Elk's problem.  
  
When 'Kite's party' made it back to the original fork, somebody suggested that they go north, despite Gardenia's correct assumptions.  
  
More loot, more dead bodies, more Eggs, and one more dead-end.  
  
"I TOLD you nincompoops that MY way was the RIGHT way!" Gardenia ranted.  
  
"Chill out, woman, we'll just go back and continue 'your way'." Kite complained back. "Besides, we got some pretty good loot, don't we?"  
  
"Well, actually, if you want to be logically correct, all that 'pretty good loot' that 'we' got goes directly to you, Kite." Mia explained.  
  
Kite glared at Mia. "You're not helping."  
  
"I know."  
  
So, once more, the gang went back to the original fork, and this time, went the correct way.  
  
"I miss Tree already." Natsume sighed. "But I should not be sad! After this quest for such an amazing reason, I will return to tell you my tale!"  
  
Kite made sure he wasn't going to be there next time Natsume went to visit the tree.  
  
When they took the right path, they suddenly realized that those rabbits in the field had LIED. There just so happened to be a dungeon after all! In the forest!  
  
"Wow, either those bunnies were really stupid, or they didn't want us to come here." BlackRose said.  
  
"Why wouldn't they want us to come?" Kite asked no one in particular. "Could it be really dangerous? No, it has to be that the bunnies want all the stuff for themselves!! Guys, this means we must do our absolute best and try to get that prize as fast as we can!"  
  
Mistral and Natsume were the only ones to cheer.  
  
"You guys certainly are enthusiastic about this whole ordeal." Kite muttered under his breath.  
  
So down into the newly discovered dungeon the group went into. The moment they walked into he room though, they triggered a portal, which released some nasty looking monsters.  
  
"Rarg! We've come to DEE-STROY YOU!" One of them roared.  
  
"Hold on just a darn minute!" Mia interrupted. "We JUST walked in here! You're not supposed to appear on us until we've reached at LEAST the next room!"  
  
"DEE-STROY!" It roared again.  
  
"Okay, yes, you want to destroy." Mia sighed. "But go into the next room and kill us all in there!"  
  
"Oh, all right." The monster sulked, grouping up his little monster fiasco and heading into the next room.  
  
So once the group went into the next room, of course, they killed the stupid monsters. What a concept. They ventured on, continuously taking wrong turns, getting lots of useless items, fighting more monsters, and going lower and lower into the dungeon. They made it to the sixth level of the dungeon. There was a sign in front of them that clearly said, "Hurrah! You've made it to the last level! Choose the right path, and you get the prize! Choose the wrong path, and you will not be able to try again! Such a tragedy, isn't it?"  
  
"Seems simple enough." BlackRose commented.  
  
"Surely. But there's only one problem." Kite pointed out.  
  
"And what would that be?" Mistral asked.  
  
"There are six different pathways!!"  
  
Gardenia rolled her eyes, groaning in disgust. "Gee, I don't know. But I seriously doubt the door with the flashy, golden lights with a big sign that says 'THIS IS THE WAY' is the one."  
  
"Then let us venture on, hoping our good luck will bring us to the right pathway!" Natsume chimed. "Shall we choose wrong, we tried our best! Oh, Tree! How grand this adventure has been! Soon we will be by each other once more!"  
  
BlackRose slid next to Kite's side, whispering, "Y'know, this gives 'tree- hugger' a whole new meaning."  
  
For the first time, they group followed Gardenia's assumptions, and went the obvious right way. The room was bright and flashy, even including a choir that could not be seen singing the "Hallejullia!" song.  
  
"Oh no.." Mia gasped.  
  
"Huh? What's wrong?" Elk asked.  
  
"There's... There's SINGING." Mia cried.  
  
Elk looked confused. "Yeah, so? I don't know, it's kind of catchy."  
  
"That means that Mistr-"  
  
"HAAAAAA-LLEJULLIA!!" Mistral sang, in very loud, heart-wrenching screams.  
  
"My ears! They burn!" Mia cried.  
  
Since they were in a large room in a dungeon, Mistral's 'singing' was not only loud and annoying, but echoing as well. That really didn't make the situation any better than it was. BlackRose inconspicuously strode to a corner of the dungeon, and going completely unnoticed, took her sword and smashed a huge radio into nothing but numerous pieces. She didn't stop smashing those pieces until they could substitute as bite-size snacks.  
  
"HAAAAAA-LLEJU- Huh?" Mistral stopped. "Aww, now why did they stop singing? Did they get tired?"  
  
"YES, YES, THEY DID." Mia hesitantly replied. "They decided that they hated singing so much, that they just STOPPED. But just don't annoy them, because they despise singing, so if you sing, they'll despise you too!"  
  
"Oh, okay." Mistral said. "I'll just wait until later to sing!"  
  
Mia got on her hands and knees, and began thanking whatever higher power up there that saved her from complete insanity.  
  
"This is it!" Kite announced. "This Gott Statue right here holds the key to what we came for! The highest level weapon of our class, a couple of level ups, and tons of rare items!"  
  
With every sound of a footstep, with each inch they took, the group got more and more nervous. They reached a point that just about every player in "The World" wished they could achieve. Many had tried to reach this very place before them, but alas, they have failed. Kite, the unofficial and self-proclaimed leader of whoever decided to join his party, stood in the front, his hand placed on the very treasure box that held the key to the very thing they came here for.  
  
"One, two, THREE!" Kite counted to himself, opening the box.  
  
The Gott Statue soon began to speak with a booming voice, saying, "Your time limit has exceeded! You do not get the treasure!"  
  
"WHAAAAAAT!?" Everybody, with the exception of Elk for some reason, screamed.  
  
The statue fell down the pit it hovered over, and the bright lights disappeared.  
  
"W-What the hell just happened here?" Kite asked, wanting to scream like a little girl and cry.  
  
"NOOOOOOOO!" Mistral yelled at the top of her lungs. "Now I'll be stuck with this god-forsaken 'Groovy Stick' for all eternity! I'M GOING TO KILL SOMEBODY!!" She went up to a wall and began bashing her head on the concrete wall.  
  
Gardenia did only what she could: Stand there, wide-eyed, and completely pissed.  
  
Mia collapsed on the ground, and began to sob. It was very sad, indeed.  
  
BlackRose began yelling bloody murder at the statue, demanding that it come back and give them the treasure. "How did we EXCEED the time limit?! We just started only an hour and a half ago!"  
  
"It's too bad." Natsume said. "But we all tried our best! We should not be sad! We all had fun on our way, and that's all that matters!"  
  
Elk looked up at the ceiling for a while, lost in thought. "Oh, I see. No wonder."  
  
"Huh?" Kite's head perked up. "No wonder WHAT?"  
  
"I think I know why it won't let us get the treasure." Elk responded. Right then, everybody fell silent, looking directly at Elk.  
  
"WHAT IS IT?!" They all asked in unison.  
  
Elk looked back down, staring at the group members. "This is that event that nobody wanted to try because they all thought it was false. It looks like it was true, but the time limit ended well over two weeks ago."  
  
Death glares was all Kite received from everyone.  
  
--------------------------- Yeah, I know, kind of stupid, but I had fun writing it. ^_^; Tell me what you think of it!  
  
By the way, credit of the Tutu-Wearing Monkey doing the Macarena goes to my friend, Nikki, for somehow managed to inspire me just by saying "Tutu- Wearing Monkey dancing the Macarena". 


End file.
